


A3- Free Space: No Comment

by thudworm



Series: Tony Stark Bingo 2019 [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Getting Together, M/M, Mutual Pining, avengers vs the media
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-22
Updated: 2019-02-22
Packaged: 2019-11-03 18:32:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17883059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thudworm/pseuds/thudworm
Summary: Telling reporters anything is never a good idea. But sometimes what they tell you can be useful.





	A3- Free Space: No Comment

**Author's Note:**

> This started life as a fill for last years Steve/Tony Bingo, but life sort of punched me in the face for a few months and I never finished anything for that event. I figured it would be a good idea to bring it back out and finish it as part of this Bingo instead.

It had been made abundantly clear to all of the Avengers that it was a Bad Idea to respond to the reporters and paparazzi who liked to interrogate them as they went about their lives. After the Buenos Aires incident, no one wanted to be the next to incur the wrath of the PR team hired jointly by Stark Industries and SHIELD.

Which was why Steve was working so hard to control his temper after his morning run was interrupted by a ‘reporter’ from one of the gossip rags asking him about Tony’s new girlfriend. 

He’d paused about halfway through his planned route to drain his water bottle when she’d called out to him. It wasn’t uncommon for people to want to talk to him or ask for something to be signed, so he’d thought nothing of greeting her with a smile. A smile which dropped off his face as soon as she introduced herself and he noticed the phone camera she was pointing in his face.

“Captain Rogers! I’m Tiffany Young with GrapeVine Magazine. Can you tell me, what do you and the rest of the Avengers team think about Tony Stark’s latest fling?” 

“No, I can’t tell you. I still have five miles left of my run, so if you’ll excuse me,” Steve replied and took off running again, not giving the reporter a chance to object or ask another question about Tony. 

Despite what he told the reporter, Steve no longer had any interest in finishing his run, so he made his way straight back home to Avengers Tower. 

Everyone was in the kitchen, finishing off breakfast and discussing their plans for the day. 

“Hey Cap! How was the run? You’re back earlier than expected.” Tony was the first to greet him when he entered the room. 

“Fine.” Steve replied curtly.

“Are we still on for that sparring demonstration this afternoon at SHIELD?” Nat asked.

“Yeah, sure.” Steve’s tone was much friendlier replying to her.

“I’ve got that new uniform upgrade for you try out when you’ve got some spare time.” Tony reminded Steve.

“Later. I’m heading to the gym.” Steve couldn’t stop himself from being snappy with Tony again as he grabbed a fresh bottle of water from the fridge, and left to head downstairs to work out some of his frustration. 

As he was leaving he overheard Clint comment “Everyone else heard that, right? I wonder what crawled up Cap’s ass this morning. What’d you do to piss him off this time, Tony?”

He was maybe rougher than he intended when pressing the button for the elevator, confirmed by JARVIS’s pointed silence during the descent and once he entered the gym. He knew his behaviour was unfair to Tony. Steve’s unrequited feelings weren’t Tony’s fault, and Tony was free to date whoever he wanted to. It would be a hell of a lot easier to remember that, though, if he didn’t have the press rubbing his nose in it. 

*

Tony honestly had no idea what he could have possibly done to make Steve mad at him since yesterday. 

The Avengers hadn’t been called into action for weeks, so it wasn’t because he’d disobeyed orders in the field; lately he’d been on his best behaviour dealing with SHIELD and Fury; and he hadn’t even been using nicknames he knew Steve hated. 

And there was no mistaking Steve’s ire being specifically directed at him. He’d been perfectly polite to Nat, but just about ripped Tony’s head off for daring to speak to him. 

“Everyone else heard that, right? I wonder what crawled up Cap’s ass this morning. What’d you do to piss him off this time, Tony?” 

Tony shot Clint a nasty look. “Fuck off, Birdbrain.” Tony sighed. “At least I wasn’t just imagining Steve being pissed at me. I’ll be down in the workshop if anyone wants me.”

“If I may, sir,” JARVIS chimed in once Tony was safely  _ not _ hiding in his workshop, “I believe I may have discovered the source of Captain Rogers’ current emotional state.”

The article JARVIS brought up for him was from one of the trash peddlers that liked call itself a magazine, which Tony usually avoided like the plague. He’d learned early on in life that giving them any sort of reaction to their fabricated bullshit would only encourage them.

The article (if it could even be called that) was speculating on a romantic relationship between him and some up-and-coming actress he’d chatted with for a few minutes at the most recent charity event Pepper had roped him in to attending. It also was pushing the angle that Tony’s supposedly wild dating life was driving a wedge between him and the rest of the team. 

There was a video attached to the article of Steve being very short-tempered with the reporter looking for a reaction. 

There… there was definitely something more going on here. Steve was the best of the Avengers at dealing with irritating press and paparazzi, other than Tony himself. He needed to talk to Steve to get to the bottom of this. 

He found Steve right where he knew he’d be, pounding away at the specially constructed punching bag in the gym. There was no way Steve hadn’t noticed his entrance, but he was pretending otherwise. 

“Is there any reason in particular you’re hitting that bag like it insulted your mother?”

“Nope.” 

“You sure? This has nothing to do with that gossip reporter ambushing you on your run this morning?” Tony wasn’t going to let Steve get away from this discussion that easily.

Steve paused his efforts on the bag, but didn’t say a word or look in Tony’s direction.

“Is this because you think I’m keeping secrets from you? You know what those rumour peddlers are like, if they don’t have any real news they make it up. This is no different to when they were running that story claiming Nat was dating Bruce. Why does it matter so much to you this time?” 

Finally, Steve turned to face him. 

“Because I was jealous.”

“Jealous of what, exactly?” Tony pressed. He had a feeling he knew what Steve’s answer would be, but he needed to hear it said. 

“The thought of you dating someone who isn’t me! Is that what you want to hear?” Steve was shouting now, and Tony decided the fastest way to get his point across was to step in to Steve’s personal space and pull him down into a kiss. 

When they broke apart to breathe Tony grinned. “That was exactly what I wanted to hear.”    
  
*

_ 3 weeks later _

Clint was the one to draw the short straw this time for speaking to the assembled media about what had gone down today. Obviously there would be a proper media release to go out later with all the details the public were allowed to know, but having an Avenger give them a short statement about the callout kept them on the good side of the media.

“Hawkeye! What can you tell us about the rumours circulating about Iron Man and Captain America dating?”

Later, Tony would mock Clint for “the biggest shiteating grin I think I’ve ever seen,” but right now he was enjoying himself. He ignored the questions being shouted his way, sticking strictly to the events of the battle until he was done.

“Oh, one other thing,” he said, like it was an afterthought and not the only thing the reporters were really interested in. “You all want to know if Steve and Tony are dating? No comment.”


End file.
